Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia · essential oil · 0.4% within the 2.0% blend
The most familiar plant on the label, kept to 0.4%.
§ 1 · What it is
Steam-distilled Lavandula angustifolia, the narrow-leaved lavender that both the perfume trade and the pharmacy trade settled on centuries ago.
At this dose it is one voice in a nine-part chord, pitched under the woods and the resin. Not a sachet in a linen drawer.
§ 2 · What the number means
0.4%, inside the 2.0% essential-oil blend. Lavender is easy to over-pour and hard to un-pour; the number keeps it a note rather than a theme.
When a formula leads with lavender, the lavender is usually the product. Here it is line four of nine.
§ 3 · What it does
Herbal and clean, closer to a workshop than a bath shop. It opens the blend and steps aside.
0.4%. Loud plants at quiet doses: the method in one line.
Its naturally occurring aroma compounds are named on the label among the declared allergens, printed rather than folded into “parfum”.
Everything in §3 is sensory or compositional. None of it is a medical claim: none may be made, and none is needed.
§ 4 · What it does not do
Does not smell like a sachet.
Does not put you to sleep.
Does not calm your nervous system. It is a smell, not a sedative.
Is not aromatherapy.
It smells good at 0.4%. Claims end there, on purpose.
§ 5 · Where it comes from
Angustifolia grows lean on poor, dry ground. The plants that struggle make the oil worth distilling.
[ An earlier draft claimed a French second-cutting origin; it was struck pending certificates of analysis, and stays struck until they arrive. ]
§ 6 · Words on other bottles
One entry per sheet. The convention is the target; no brand is named, and none needs to be.
“Hypoallergenic”
No regulated definition and no agreed test. The word is a hope with a suffix. The law already does the useful thing: it names the allergens that must be declared. Ours are printed, which is the part a word like this would rather you skipped.